When Chad Met Sonny
by RandomnessIsMyThing
Summary: AU: After running into each other several years later following their first meeting, Sonny and Chad set out to prove that men and women can be friends. However, they may find that things don't go exactly as they planned. Based on the movie "When Harry Met Sally." M for some language and themes.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first multi-chap. story so please bear with me as I work two jobs and am a college student. This story is also based off of the movie, "When Harry Met Sally" which is basically the greatest romantic comedy ever. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I will try to update as frequently as I can.**

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2004, Sonny POV:

I sit waiting in my yellow bug with the contents of my life strapped to the roof. Somehow, due to my inability to turn down a friend, I managed to land myself a partner in my road trip to Los Angeles. Said partner is currently busy sucking my best friend's face while I sit patiently waiting, observing the disgusting encounter in my side rearview mirror. Growing impatient, I clear my throat so as to make my presence known to the oblivious lovebirds.

With much reluctance they separate.

"Oh," my friend Lucy says as if only just now noticing me, "Chad, this is Sonny Munroe. Sonny, this is Chad Dylan Cooper." She annunciates each of his three names slowly and with importance as if she is a journalist who just thought of the most fitting name for her article.

We shake hands briefly and exchange hello's as he drags his belongings to the rear end of my car.

"Trunk's open," I shout unnecessarily back to the tall, handsome blond who is already loading his things in the car.

"I'll miss you so much," Lucy says as they once again become entangled in each other.

He shakes his head. "Oh, not as much as I'll miss you."

"Promise you'll call me?" she asks, giving him her best puppy dog face.

He puts his index finger to her nose and I feel a sudden urge to gag. "I'll call you the minute I get there."

She giggles and the sucking of faces commences once more.

An agonizing several moments pass before I lay my hand on the horn. I watch with pleasure as the two jump apart at the sudden shrill noise.

I offer an innocent smile. "Oops, sorry."

Blondie sends me a glare, plants a few more kisses on Lucy, and shuffles around to the passenger side of the car. He slams the door behind him as he lowers himself in and takes no care in tossing a few more bags in the back seat.

"So," I begin, trying to make friendly conversation, "It's a thirty-one hour trip from Wisconsin to California and if we switch shifts every three hours-"

I am interrupted by the infamous face sucker. "So you're Sonny."

Glancing over at him, confused by his sudden interruption I say, "Yes. And you're Chad, Lucy's boyfriend."

He puts his feet up on the dashboard and sinks farther into the seat, placing his hands behind his golden head of hair. "Yep, that's me. By the way if you're expecting to give me your life story as a way of passing the time, I'm not interested."

I scoff at his rudeness. He may be attractive but his personality surely isn't.

"Actually, not to burst your bubble, I don't have much of a life story. Nothing's really happened to me yet, which is why I'm moving to L.A. to become an actress." I inform him.

From my seat behind the wheel I can see that his eyes are closed as if he intends to nap, yet his mouth opens proving otherwise.

"You're giving me your life story without even realizing it and I'm already bored." He sits up suddenly, taking me by surprise. "What if, you don't become this famous star you're dreaming of being-I'm assuming that's why you're moving to L.A., to accomplish more than you ever have here in lovely Wisconsin-and you wind up dying old and alone, a washed up celeb that never made it big? What if you become the creepy cat lady no one notices until three weeks later when you start to smell?"

I gape at him. Only fifteen minutes in and it's already been a long trip.

"Who's to say that's going to happen to me?" I ask. "The same thing could very well happen to you, creep."

He merely laughs at my remark and smiles a brilliant smile. "That will never happen to me. You obviously don't know who you're speaking to."

"Well," I say, my voice laced with sarcasm, "Please do me the honor of enlightening me."

He turns to me and says in all seriousness, "Chad Dylan Cooper, future actor and heart throb of showbiz."

I roll my eyes. "You come up with that all yourself?"

"No need to be mean just because you don't have three first names," he says before slumping back down into his earlier position.

"We've known each other barely twenty minutes and already you've insulted me several times," I chastise him. "It takes a sick kind of person to talk about someone dying and smelling up the place one minute and then give himself three first names the next."

He shrugs. "Anyone who wants to make it in show business needs a dark side."

"Dark side? Why would you need a dark side?" I question.

Chad brushes his hair to the side. "Well, obviously, it's because the media loves a good celebrity with a dark side. Another reason you're going to die alone," he states, crossing his arms behind his head while reclining the seat. "You clearly don't have one."

I scoff for the second time in twenty minutes.

"For your information, I do, in fact have a dark side." I say confidently, squaring my shoulders as I scan the highway before us.

I hear him snort from the passenger seat. He soon breaks into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"What?" I demand, annoyed.

He fingers away a single tear. "I'm sorry, it's just, you can't possibly have a dark side."

I spare a side glare his direction. "And how would you know whether or not I have a dark side?" I prompt.

He sits up once more, seriousness becoming him. He begins listing things off on his fingers. "Well, for starters, your name is Sonny and you drive a bright yellow bug. You're the epitome of happiness and sunshine," he states. "Whenever I get a new movie, I skip to the last scene. That way if I die, at least I know how it ends. That, Sonshine, is a dark side."

I roll my eyes at his stupidity. "Okay, so I'm a happy person and you know what, there's nothing wrong with that. I like being happy," I say, gripping the steering wheel tighter and turning my focus back to the expanse of highway in front of me.

A few minutes of silence pass and I begin to think he's finally giving up on the whole dark side spiel when he says, "I mean, don't you ever think about death?"

"Oh my gosh," I moan. "Will you let the dark side crap go, please?"

He puts his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay. You're just an unnaturally happy person that doesn't ever think about death. Or has a dark side."

The temptation to argue otherwise is hanging like a piece of bacon at the end of a treadmill in front of a jogging fat kid's face, yet I opt to stay silent. Silence seems to be the better option. Future-Mister-Heart-Throb loses interest in our previous conversation. I take the time to enjoy the scenery passing by in quick glances and imagine my future in Los Angeles as an actress.

Hours later, we've swapped positions and I gaze out the window at the miles of trees lining the highway. My forehead bounces back from its spot against the window with every dip or bump we drive over.

"So," his voice trails over to me from the driver's side, "you want to be an actress, right? Of course if you want to be an actress you've had to of seen the classics like _Gone with the Wind_ and _Casablanca_."

I lift my head from the window to stare at him. Somehow I find it hard to believe that someone this, _interesting_, could have possibly sat through any of those movies. He comes across as more of a pointless-explosions-and-one-liners-movies kind of guy.

"You know, I find it very hard to believe that you've actually seen any of those movies," I say simply, turning my face back toward the window.

"Any actor who wants to be the _greatest_ actor of their generation must watch the greats like Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable." He states matter-of-factly.

I'm willing to bite. "Okay, yes I've seen them. What's your point?"

He lifts a hand from the wheel to point his index finger at the ceiling as a way of speaking with his hands. "Ultimate question: Humphrey Bogart or that other guy she gets on the plane with?"

"Oh that's easy, the other guy." I say, crossing my arms confidently.

He slams his hands against the wheel and exclaims, "What?! No! No! Why would you want to be in a passionless marriage?"

I square my shoulders and sit higher up in my seat. "Well, I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca. She would so regret marrying the guy who runs a bar for a living. He even flat out tells her in the movie that she will regret it!" I point out to him as I lift a hand from my crossed arms to gesture I'm right. "That's why she gets on the plane at the end of the movie."

Chad rapidly shakes his head back and forth in denial. "No, Humphrey Bogart puts her on the plane because he doesn't want her to stay. He wants a better life for her."

We begin to pull into a small highway-side diner in the middle of nowhere. Chad cuts the ignition after managing to park my small yellow bug a tad bit crooked in a lone parking spot.

"I'm only saying," I tell him across the hood of my car as we exit, "that between the two I would choose the other guy."

Chad shuts the door and makes his way to the diner's entrance. He reaches for the door and says, a smirk dancing across his features, "No, I understand."

I give him a questioning look. Sarcasm, seeping from my voice, I say, "Oh, you understand now."

He shrugs as we enter the restaurant. "You just haven't had great sex yet."

His comment floors me. No one, in my entire twenty-two years on the planet has ever had the gall to call out the activities of my sex life.

I stand gaping at him in the middle of the diner. Angrily, I point my finger at him. "It just so happens, that I have had very great sex."

Immediately, I regret my outburst. I now hold the attention of each of the few patrons in the diner. My face downcast, I shuffle over to where Chad has seated himself. He doesn't even bother glancing up from the menu as I take my seat across from him.

"So," he begins, still not looking up from his menu, "who?"

I quirk an eyebrow up at him as I reach for a menu. "Who what?"

He snaps his menu abruptly shut. "Who have you had this great sex with?"

I slap my menu down against the table and glare into his cobalt blue eyes. Lucy never mentioned how dazzling they were. But that does nothing to change the fact that he has embarrassed me for the second time tonight and I'm ready to kick him in the balls.

"Why would I tell you that?" I sneer.

"Well," he drags out the word, "you just announced the fact that it happened to the whole restaurant so I didn't think it was a big deal."

We hold each other's gaze for several moments longer. He's challenging me, he doesn't believe that this happy ray of sunshine could have ever been doing something promiscuous under the sheets of some man's bed. Well, bring it on Future-Greatest-Actor-of-our-Generation.

"Fine," I say, crossing my arms as I have given up arguing with this overgrown child. "Stu. His name was Stu."

He stares at me for several seconds, almost as if he is in disbelief, before saying, "No. Stu as in Stewart? No, you did not have great sex with Stewart."

"I did too."

Chad shakes his head at me and folds his hands across the table. Leaning in a little, he says, "No. A _'Stewart'_ can do your math homework for you. If you need a colonoscopy, Dr. _'Stewart'_ can help you with that, but pumpin' and dumpin' is not Stewart's thing."

I gasp at his vulgar mouth and lean across the table to glare. "What on Earth are you talking about? We had great sex together."

He shrugs. "I'm sorry, it's in the name." His voice raises an octave to a much more feminine tone. "Oh, do it to me _Stewart_. Love me, Big _Stewart_. Ride me, _Stewart_. It just doesn't work."

The waitress chooses this moment to join us. I notice she gives Chad an admiring look and roll my eyes. If only his personality matched the beauty of his face.

"What can I get for you two?" She asks us, all the while staring at him.

Chad, who I can easily guess is devilishly charming, lays it down like butter on bread. "Oh, well what would you have? You know what, surprise me." He winks at the tall dark skinned brunette, who melts under his captivating gaze.

She takes his menu and reluctantly turns to me for my order. "And what'll you have, honey?"

"I'll just take a number two, please." I hand her my menu and catch a glimpse of her nametag. "Thank you, Donna-Bo-Bonna."

Donna merely accepts my menu hesitantly and sends me a look of pure bewilderment. When she walks away, Chad is giving me the same look.

"What?" I ask him, taking a sip off the water she brought us before taking our orders.

"I was right; you've never had sex." He states, while he nonchalantly reaches for his glass and takes a swig.

"And how would you know that, oh wise one?"

He quirks an eyebrow at me as if I should know the answer. "Well, for starters, most mature adults don't rhyme random people's names like a child."

I throw my hands up at his ridiculous generalization. "What's wrong with being silly and having fun? I'm going to L.A. because I want to be a comedic actress and do silly things for a living!"

Chad merely crosses his arms in response. We sit in silence for a few moments, staring one another down. He breaks the silence first.

"So, Sonshine, why did you and Stewart break up?"

I narrow my eyes at his assumption and respond with, "What makes you think we broke up?"

"Well," he begins as if it is the most obvious thing in the world, "if you were still together, you wouldn't be here with me, you'd be off with Stewart the sex god."

"I am not going to tell you whether or not we broke up."

He cocks a perfectly shaped eyebrow at my response.

I cave. "Okay, so yeah, we did break up. And if you insist on knowing the reason it's because he had no sense of humor and I occasionally did impersonations. "

Chad eyes me questioningly. "Impersonations? He dumped you because of impersonations."

I slap my hands down on the table. "_I_ dumped _him_ because he didn't like my impersonations. I'd impersonate teachers, celebrities, political figures. Everyone told me I was really good at it. Of course he never cared for it, but when he made fun of my impersonation of Barbra Walters, that was where I drew the line."

"I'm sorry, you broke up with him because of Barbra Walters?"

I nod confidently. "She's only like, my best impersonation ever."

He shakes his head as our plates are placed in front of us. "I'll just take your word for it."

After we finish our road-side restaurant quality food, I am pulling bills from my wallet to leave a tip when I catch sight of Chad staring at me in my peripheral vision.

I gingerly wipe my face with a napkin, yet he continues to stare.

"What?" I hiss.

"You know, for being a weird impersonating, comedy freak, you're actually kind of pretty." He states, his eyes not leaving my face.

My face instantly grows hot and I avert my eyes back to my wallet.

"Um, thank you, I think."

We both exit our booth and begin making our way back to my bug. It will be my turn to drive. Maybe he'll sleep the rest of the way to and I can have peace. One could only be so lucky.

"You know," he says as he opens the door to the passenger side, "Lucy never mentioned that you were attractive."

I duck into the driver's side and jam the key in the ignition. "Maybe that's because most girls don't want to tell their boyfriends all about how pretty their friend, true or not, is."

"All I'm saying is that, from an onlookers perspective, you are an attractive woman." He places his hands behind his head and reclines the seat.

"Would you stop that?" I yell at him, smacking him in the process.

"Fine, I'll put it back up, seat Nazi." He reclines the chair back to its earlier position.

"No, hitting on me. Lucy is my friend and your girlfriend."

He chuckles in a rather annoying manner. Frankly anything this man does is annoying. "Oh Sonny, silly little name-rhyming Sonny. I wasn't hitting on you. I was merely stating a fact. You're the one who chose to take it out of context."

I heave an annoyed sigh. "Whatever. Just keep your thoughts to yourself. I'd like for us to leave this awful road trip as friends." _If that's possible_, I think silently to myself.

He reclines his seat once more and rests his feet on my dashboard. We are definitely not going to be friends.

"Sure, sure. Friends." He murmurs before drifting off into sleep.

Hours later, he is awake and playing games on a flip phone. My eyes are focused solely on the road and ignoring the annoying blond next to me.

"You realize we can never be friends." Chad says, breaking the long silence spanning between us.

"Okay, I'll bite." I respond with an eye roll. "And why would that be, Chad?"

"What I'm saying," he looks up from his phone finally, "is that men and women can never be friends because the sex part always gets in the way."

I roll my eyes yet again. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

"That has got to be the most absurd thing I have ever heard."

"No, really. It's an unspoken law of the sexes. They just aren't meant to be friends." He states matter-of-factly as though he is giving a speech to a class.

"There is no unspoken law. I have friends who are guys and we've never had any issue with 'the sex part' getting in the way." I say confidently as I have debunked his theory.

"Are they gay?"

"No!" I shout at him. Then in a more deflated tone when I realize one actually _is_ gay, I utter, "Okay, well, only one is, but that's not my point!"

"Look," Chad says, using his hands in his speaking, "you don't actually have all these man friends with no sex involved. You only think you do."

"Oh, so you're saying that I'm sleeping with all of my men friends without my knowledge? Because that makes perfect sense, Chad." I let the sarcasm drip from my voice, letting my annoyance express itself freely.

"No, you're missing the point, Chucklehead. All these men you're supposedly friends with, they all want to have sex with you." He crosses his arms and leans back as if he has won this argument.

I gasp, letting my mouth hang agape for a few moments in shock at what he has just said. My guy friends don't all want to have sex with me! That's outrageous.

"How would you know that, master of the sexes?"

"Well, for starters, I'm a guy, so I know how they think. And second, no man, with the exception of gay men, can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. All he wants to do is have sex with her."

"So, let me see if I have this correct." I spare a glance at him and he nods confidently, with a stupid smirk plastered across his face. "You're saying that a man can't be friends with a woman he finds attractive because he only wants to sleep with her."

I receive a short nod and a "Yes" as confirmation.

"What if a man is friends with an unattractive woman?"

He ponders the question briefly and shakes his head. "No, he would want to do her too."

"This is ridiculous. What if she doesn't want to have sex with him? Ever think of that one?"

He shrugs. "Well, that's just it then. The whole sex thing is already out there so the friendship is doomed. Hence, men and women can never be friends. End of story."

"Well, then I guess we won't be friends."

"Yeah," he agrees quietly, "I guess not."

"It's too bad," I glance at him and catch his eyes. "You were the only person I knew in Los Angeles."

Thirty-one hours since I was locked in a car with a self-absorbed man with the theories of a Neanderthal, I find myself pulling up to a crappy looking apartment complex on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

I merely watch as Chad hops out of the car and goes around back to fetch his belongings. Once he slams the trunk shut I exit the vehicle myself to send him off as pleasantly as I can manage.

"Well," I stick out my hand, "It was nice knowing you for the thirty-one hour period we spent together."

He shakes it briefly with a bag tucked under his arm. "Yeah, have a nice life, Sonny."

I nod and place my hands on my hips. "You too, Chad."

He turns and begins to trudge up the stairs of the scary dirty apartment complex while I return to my bug. I pull back out onto the street and smile at the thought that I never have to see his handsome face again.


	2. Chapter 2

2009, Chad POV:

I'm waltzing my way through the airport, waving to a few paparazzi here and there, or at least what in my mind are paparazzi. So I haven't quite had my big break yet, but I've done some stuff here and there, TV shows and some minor roles in movies. I'm on Wikipedia and IMBD, so yeah I can wave at my paparazzi if I want.

I am just about to lug my crap through security when a couple, full on making out in the middle of the airport, snags my attention. Upon closer inspection, I come to the realization that I know the dude getting some serious action for dropping of his girlfriend-at least who I assume is his girlfriend, kudos to him if it isn't-at the airport.

I, having no shame, or filter of the mind for that matter, confront the couple.

"James," I greet, leaning to the side slightly so as to see his face.

Annoyance crosses his features momentarily but then his expression returns to that cool collected look only a celebrity can pull off. He draws back from his girl to meet my smug expression.

"Chad, wasn't expecting to see you here." He extends his hand to me and we bro-hug. You know, when guys hug it out with a handshake type smack on the back hug.

"Oh well," I say after we release from our masculine display of caring for the other's existence. "My public needs me, so I'm off to New York to shoot a movie."

His eyebrows lift in surprise. "Really? Well, congratulations. I wish you the best man but I should be-" His girlfriend clears her throat to remind him of her presence. "Oh, Chad, this is Sonny Munroe. Sonny this is Chad, he had a recurring role on my show once before he got killed off."

We all laugh uncomfortably before I say, "Well, I've got a plane to catch, so I'll see you around, James. It was great seeing you."

As I make my way through security, I can't help but feel that I've seen that brunette of his before. _Sonny Munroe_. And I swear I know that name. Perhaps she was an adoring fan of mine; I wouldn't be surprised, as I do have many.

Once I have lugged all my crap onto the plane and taken my seat in coach, which will soon be first class after this movie, I people watch as the remaining passengers file in. Fat guy in shorts too tight, old woman so wrinkled she looks like she's lived in a pool all her life, and a family with screaming children. Wonderful for a six hour flight.

And then a cute little brunette catches my attention. It's definitely James's Sonny Munroe. I watch as she gracefully pulls her suitcase through the aisle and lifts it up into the overhead bin. To my surprise she takes her seat in front of me.

I contemplate asking her if we've met before but I'm certain she would be completely freaked out by me. Or think I'm coming on to her. Not that that's a bad thing.

After about an hour into the flight, the flight attendants come down the aisle taking drink orders. As they approach Sonny, who I've been creeping on for the last hour, she interrupts their question of what she would like to drink by rhyming their names in some silly song.

And suddenly realization smacks me across my beautiful face like a ton of bricks. Sonny Munroe! The Sonny Munroe I rode all the way to Los Angeles with after college. Sonny who rhymes people's names and does break-up-worthy impersonations.

I lean over the top of her seat, poke her in the cheek and say, "University of Wisconsin? We rode together after graduation. You totally wanted to bang."

Her jaw drops and for a moment I think she just might smack me. "Excuse me, but I never had any desire to sleep with you, _Chad_," she sneers at me. Yep, that's definitely her.

I ask the guy next to her if he'll switch seats with me, to which he obliges. A heavy sigh escapes Sonny's ruby lips.

"I was hoping you wouldn't recognize me," she confesses to me, arms crossed, not looking at me.

"Well, it's too late for that. So how've you been? Finally had actual great sex yet?" I prod, elbowing her in the side.

She sneers at me, leaning as far away from me as the small coach seats will allow. "I was wonderful until you showed back up in my life asking your extremely personal questions."

"At least I make for interesting conversation," I comment, earning myself an eye roll. Before Sonny can return to the script she was reading I elect to pry some more, "So you and James, eh? You've been dating, what, a couple of weeks?"

She eyes me suspiciously. "We've been dating three weeks. How did you know that?"

I shrug. "Taking someone to the airport is obviously the start of a new relationship. You're still in the honeymoon phase at that point. I always end it right before the airport stage of the relationship because, you never want to hear someone tell you, 'You never take me to the airport anymore.' Thus begins the nagging phase of your relationship and then, you know, you start feeling insecure, 'Are they taking someone else to the airport? Am I not good enough to be taken to the airport?' It's all downhill from there."

Sonny merely shakes her head at me, wavy dark hair following. "Just as optimistic as I remember you to be, Chad."

I lean back in the seat and shake my finger at her. "I'll have you know, I am quite the optimistic person. In fact, I'm getting married."

She gapes at me in disbelief before her chocolate eyes narrow slightly. "I don't believe you. You, self-proclaimed heart throb, are getting married? You of all people should not be permitted to get married."

I nod my affirmation. "Yup. Hard to believe, right? I do feel some remorse though, I mean, God's gift to women is going to be permanently off the market. But that's exactly why I wanted to get married. There comes a time when you just get sick of wondering how long to hold a woman after sex before you can leave. With a wife, I wouldn't have to wonder, I'd just hold her after doin' it, go to sleep, and repeat the process tomorrow."

"That's both insightful and absolutely repulsive, Chad. Who is the poor soul anyway?"

"Her name is Penelope. Dark hair, brown eyes, super hot. Yeah," I elongate the word as I stretch out and get comfortable for the long flight, "she's lucky to have me."

Sonny scoffs at this. "I'm sure she is, Chad."

I doze off for a few hours but am abruptly shaken awake by the landing. Sonny laughs at me as I jolt awake, gripping the arm rests of the seat with white-knuckle force.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty, have a nice nap?"

Once off the plane and in the terminal, we walk together, which mainly consists of me walking next to her as she takes different directions to try to avoid me.

"You know, Chad, I'm happy you've found someone able to put up with your shit. God help her," she says to me as we make our way to baggage claim.

"So does this make us friends now, Sonshine?" I retort with my dazzling smile.

"If I recall, you said on the drive to L.A. that men and women can never be friends because the sex part of it gets in the way."

"Oh, yeah, that rule still stands. However, it has been amended to allow friendships between men and women who are involved in a relationship."

Sonny nods her approval when a thought cancels out what I've just said.

"No wait, that doesn't work either. Because your partner starts to wonder why you have to be friends with that person and then it creates tension in the relationship. 'Are they giving them something I'm not? Why do they need another woman in their life?' And then you start to realize you find yourself secretly attracted to your 'friend' and ultimately you want to sleep with them. Your friendship and relationship are then ruined and the rule still stands. Thus, men and women can never be friends."

"Whatever you say, Chad. If you don't mind, I'm going to go fetch my bag and be on my way. It was," she pauses, "_interesting_ seeing you again. Goodbye."

I bid her farewell and go off in search of my bag as well. The next time that girl sees me, it'll be on a big screen. And I'll look damn good too.


End file.
